Weapon

A weapon, arm, or armament is any device used with intent to inflict damage or harm to living creatures, structures, or systems. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting, crime, law enforcement, self-defense, and warfare. In broader context, weapons may be construed to include anything used to gain a strategic, material or mental advantage over an adversary or enemy target.

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The use of objects as weapons has been observed among chimpanzees,[1] leading to speculation that early hominids first began to use weapons as early as five million years ago.[2] However, this can not be confirmed using physical evidence because wooden clubs, spears, and unshaped stones would have left an ambiguous record. The earliest unambiguous weapons to be found are the Schöninger Spear: eight wooden throwing spears dated as being more than 300,000 years old.[3][4][5][6][7] At the site of Nataruk in Turkana, Kenya, numerous human skeletons dating to 10,000 years ago may present evidence of major traumatic injuries to the head, neck, ribs, knees and hands, including obsidian projectiles still embedded in the bones, that might have been caused by arrows and clubs in the context of conflict between two hunter-gatherer groups,[8] but this interpretation of the evidence of warfare at Nataruk has been challenged.[9]

The first defensive structures and fortifications appeared in the Bronze Age,[10] indicating an increased need for security. Weapons designed to breach fortifications followed soon after, for example the battering ram was in use by 2500 BC.[10]

Although early Iron Age swords were not superior to their bronze predecessors, once iron-working developed, around 1300 BC in Greece, the Domestication of the horse and widespread use of spoked wheels by ca. 2000 BC,[11] led to the light, horse-drawn chariot. The mobility provided by chariots were important during this era.[citation needed] Spoke-wheeled chariot usage peaked around 1300 BC and then declined, ceasing to be militarily relevant by the 4th century BC.[12]

Cavalry developed once horses were bred to support the weight of a man[citation needed]. The horse extended the range and increased the speed of attacks.

Ships built as weapons or warships such as the trireme were in use by the 7th century BC.[13] These ships were eventually replaced by larger ships by the 4th century BC.

European warfare during the Post-classical history was dominated by elite groups of knights supported by massed infantry (both in combat and ranged roles). They were involved in mobile combat and sieges which involved various siege weapons and tactics. Knights on horseback developed tactics for charging with lances providing an impact on the enemy formations and then drawing more practical weapons (such as swords) once they entered into the melee. Whereas infantry, in the age before structured formations, relied on cheap, sturdy weapons such as spears and billhooks in close combat and bows from a distance. As armies became more professional, their equipment was standardized and infantry transitioned to pikes. Pikes are normally seven to eight feet in length, in conjunction with smaller side-arms (short sword).

In Eastern and Middle Eastern warfare, similar tactics were developed independent of European influences.

The European Renaissance marked the beginning of the implementation of firearms in western warfare. Guns and rockets were introduced to the battlefield.

Firearms are qualitatively different from earlier weapons because they release energy from combustible propellants such as gunpowder, rather than from a counter-weight or spring. This energy is released very rapidly and can be replicated without much effort by the user. Therefore even early firearms such as the arquebus were much more powerful than human-powered weapons. Firearms became increasingly important and effective during the 16th century to 19th century, with progressive improvements in ignition mechanisms followed by revolutionary changes in ammunition handling and propellant. During the U.S. Civil War various technologies including the machine gun and ironclad warship emerged that would be recognizable and useful military weapons today, particularly in limited conflicts. In the 19th century warship propulsion changed from sail power to fossil fuel-powered steam engines.

This continued in the inter-war period (between WW I and WW II) with continuous evolution of all weapon systems by all major industrial powers. Many modern military weapons, particularly ground-based ones, are relatively minor improvements of weapon systems developed during World War II. See military technology during World War II for a detailed discussion.

Since the mid-18th century North American French-Indian war through the beginning of the 20th century, human-powered weapons were reduced from the primary weaponry of the battlefield yielding to gunpowder-based weaponry. Sometimes referred to as the "Age of Rifles",[14] this period was characterized by the development of firearms for infantry and cannons for support, as well as the beginnings of mechanized weapons such as the machine gun, the tank and the wide introduction of aircraft into warfare, including naval warfare with the introduction of the aircraft carriers.

World War II however, perhaps marked the most frantic period of weapons development in the history of humanity. Massive numbers of new designs and concepts were fielded, and all existing technologies were improved between 1939 and 1945. The most powerful weapon invented during this period was the atomic bomb, however many more weapons influenced the world in different ways.

Since the realization of mutually assured destruction (MAD), the nuclear option of all-out war is no longer considered a survivable scenario. During the Cold War in the years following World War II, both the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in a nuclear arms race. Each country and their allies continually attempted to out-develop each other in the field of nuclear armaments. Once the joint technological capabilities reached the point of being able to ensure the destruction of the Earth x100 fold, then a new tactic had to be developed. With this realization, armaments development funding shifted back to primarily sponsoring the development of conventional arms technologies for support of limited wars rather than total war.[15]

There are a number of issue around the potential ongoing risks from deployed weapons, the safe storage of weapons, and their eventual disposal when no longer effective or safe.

Ocean dumping of unused weapons and bombs, including ordinary bombs, UXO, landmines and chemical weapons has been common practice by many nations, and often caused hazards.[17][18][19][20]

Unexploded ordnance (UXO) are bombs, land mines and naval mines and similar that did not explode when they were employed and still pose a risk for many years or decades.[21]

Demining or mine clearance from areas of past conflict is a difficult process, but every year, landmines kill 15,000 to 20,000 people and severely maim countless more.[22]

Nuclear terrorism was a serious concern after the fall of the Soviet Union, with the prospect of "loose nukes" being available.[23] While this risk may have receded,[24] similar situation may arise in the future.